No longer content with being an international magnet for service work, the animation industry here is moving with large, loping strides toward proprietary production, developing shows for Canadian and international broadcast.

Animation shops of all sizes and orientations are abustle with service work and a wide array of weird and wonderful in-house projects.

Natterjack revs up

Vancouver’s Natterjack Animation is underway with Max & Moritz, a 13-episode series based on a popular ‘edgy’ children’s book by Wilhelm Busch. The show is a coproduction with Germany’s Trickompany, with which Natterjack has worked on past feature projects.

The series is about a month into production, with Germany’s zdf signed on as broadcaster and discussions ongoing with Canadian broadcasters and distributors.

The shop is also finishing off a five-minute pilot for The Champ based on a radio comedy show to which Natterjack owns rights. The Champ character has had widespread radio play and Natterjack director of development Sean Maclennan Murch says three cds based on the show have been selling at the top of the indie heap at music retailers.

The show will expand The Champ character beyond his trademark ‘Pardon?’ and gruff manner and is intended as a primetime series along the lines of King of the Hill and The Simpsons.

Murch says financial and broadcast partners are currently being sought, and pending results of current discussions, the project may be taken to this month’s mipcom.

Natterjack is also doing work for the Cartoon Network’s Acme Hour Show through Wild Brain in San Francisco.

Some shops have parlayed backgrounds in digital effects and animation into development initiatives in both live-action and animated properties.

Toronto computer animation and effects shop TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation has branched out into tv development with a spate of projects in various stages of development.

topix chief Chris Wallace and former C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures producer Stephen Price comprise the company’s new production entity Red Giant, which has begun season two of its Splat! magazine show, produced with Torch Television and running on teletoon this fall.

The second season is set for completion in December, and Price says the company is working on a u.s. sale while teletoon has already indicated interest in a third season.

Red Giant is also working toward three additional series. First up is Passages, a 26-part, half-hour magazine-style show coproduced with Vancouver’s The Eyes Multimedia which focuses on the wilderness areas of North America and the people who create a place in it.

Also on the slate is Science Highway, a 26-part series on how scientific milestones have shaped humanity, in development with acclaimed documentary filmmaker Michael Lennick.

Price says there are an additional six long-term concepts in the works, one of them a 3D animated project. Price says the company has gained significant momentum since he officially joined less than a month ago and response from broadcasters has been positive. Price and Wallace have also met with a pair of established tv producers to discuss long-term plans for a project of larger scope.

Vancouver’s Bardel Animation is another company which has done extensive service work and now has a number of proprietary projects in development.

Bardel began work on DreamWorks’ feature Prince of Egypt about two months ago and will continue working on the project for another six to eight months. The shop is also doing layout work for Disney’s direct-to-home video Pocahontas.

In addition, Bardel is developing its own tv properties, among them Thorax the Conqueror, an adult comedy with Toronto-based Cambium Releasing on board as international distributor and Ross Saunders Group as u.s. distributor.

The show originated in-house and is described by director of development Jesse Fawcett as a ‘visual spectacle,’ borrowing camera narrative from the cinema of the ’40s and ’50s, with nods to Billy Wilder, Ed Wood and Hitchcock in the form of abstract camera angles, dolly-out/zoom-ins and hokey special effects, or, put another way, ‘Beavis and Butt-head meet Ren and Stimpy at a blood bank.’

Bardel is also working on Pig William, a joint venture with Cambium aimed at six- to 11-year-olds. ytv is on board as a partner in development.

The series is based on a book by Arlene Dubanevich and revolves around the titular character and the ‘magic and surrealism of the way kids see the world.’

Both Thorax and Pig William will be 13 half-hours, initially broken into two 11-minute segments.

Dark Dog, a superhero comedy with a twist for six- to 11-year-olds, is also in early development. The shop has completed bibles for Thorax and Pig William and all three shows will be shopped at mipcom this month. Fawcett says there are a number of other long-term projects catering to various audience segments in the works, possibly including a puppet-style show.

Ottawa’s Fun Bag has a full slate of service and proprietary projects in various stages of development and production set for this year and next.

Fun Bag series Toad Patrol will roll into production later this winter, with preproduction, voice casting, three initial scripts and the central design pack looked after.

The show about a family of toads in the enchanted forest combines humor with an environmental bent and an emphasis on adventure, says Fun Bag’s Curtis Crawford.

The series originated with the company’s production partner Edward Sarson of Cambridge, Ont., who had successfully marketed the toad concept as confectionery products in Canada and the u.s. Sarson approached Fun Bag about three years ago and the Ottawa company developed the show and just closed a deal with new specialty teletoon for a September 1998 launch.

Crawford says Toad Patrol has a classically animated look with a design edge. ‘We tried to bring it out of the preschool atmosphere and give it a more exciting and adventurous look.’

Fun Bag is also working toward a September 1998 airdate for Tool Town, the adventures of animated tools as they build a colossal city. ytv is on board as a development partner and the show is being produced in association with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.

PolyGram Visual Programming has ponied up development financing for a third Fun Bag series, King Weirdo, about a boy who becomes king of the weird land under his bed, and Fun Bag is currently sniffing out a broadcaster.

The shop is also talking to Global about 40 episodes of Diabolik, a show based on the French comic of the same name about a master thief. Fun Bag will undertake the show in association with Saban and Fox, both of which have already signed on to the project.

Crawford says while the company has been hustling with its own projects, service work has also kept the shop busy.

Fun Bag is currently working on Sniz & Fondue, a five-minute series that runs on Nickelodeon’s Kablam ‘alternative’ animation show. Crawford says the show represents a comprehensive array of service; the scripts are sent from the u.s. and Fun Bag animates, assists, colors and handles the full production in its studio. The facility is also working on Freaky Stories for ytv through Decode Entertainment.

Toronto facility Canuck Creations, which has worked previously on Warner Bros. features Space Jam and The Quest for Camelot, has two of its own series projects on its development slate.

Yip Yip Yahoo is a children’s show about a collection of crazy animals who, upon undergoing some sort of undisclosed transformation, must assimilate themselves into human society, while Pocketchange, aimed at an older audience, revolves around a stock car-racing, marsupial country and western band.

The projects are fully developed and have garnered favorable attention from broadcasters. Canuck is currently seeking distribution and production backers, with a trip to mipcom a possibility.

Canuck is also currently working on Myth, a cd-rom project from u.s. developer Bungie Software set for release in October.

The country’s highest profile shops also have new projects upcoming. Disney is wrapping up its inaugural Beauty and the Beast project and is expected to make a major new project announcement soon.

In addition to season three of ReBoot and season two of Beasties, Vancouver’s Mainframe is completing its Imax Ride Film version of ReBoot, set to launch at Paladium in Mississauga, Ont., in October and later around the world.

The film is based on the new Imax motion platform which entails a 180-degree screen and hydraulic motion seats. The project, the first all-cg Imax film, has been over a year in the works with challenges like animating for a curved screen and undertaking a 70-channel sound mix, which is being handled by Masters Workshop in Toronto.

The company, which is expected to make further announcements regarding long-form initiatives, says the Imax project is a logical intermediate step from tv to feature films.

Countdown to Chaos, the ReBoot computer game being produced with Electronic Arts, is set for release in January ’98.